In this file photo taken on Jan. 23, 2018, Palestinians walk outside the Dome of the Rock in the al-Aqsa mosque compound in the disputed holy city of Jerusalem, which is at the center of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. (AFP Photo)
by Emad Drimly
GAZA, Feb. 20 (Xinhua) -- Palestinian analysts believe that U.S. President Donald Trump's new plan for the Middle East peace, which is supposed to be revealed in the coming weeks, would not put an end to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
They argued that Trump's plan means to undermine the Palestinian cause rather than reaching a just settlement to the conflict.
Last week, U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said in Jordan that the work on formulating a new plan for achieving peace in the Middle East region is "fairly well advanced."
He said the decision taken on Jerusalem was "about the United States and our recognition of Jerusalem and where we choose to place our embassy."
He added that the decision "does not preclude a two-state solution if that is the solution the parties seek."
Despite global opposition, Trump fulfilled in December one of his major campaign promises by recognizing the disputed city of Jerusalem as Israel's capital and ordered to move the U.S. embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.
Israel took over East Jerusalem in the 1967 war and later declared the united city of Jerusalem as its eternal capital, while the Palestinians hope to create a future independent state with East Jerusalem as its capital.
"Washington's policies in the Middle East have been proven to be a big failure," Hani al-Masri, director of the Ramallah-based Masarat Center for Studies Research, told Xinhua.
The features of the U.S. plan, although not officially put forward, are clear after being presented by U.S. officials to several Arab and international parties.
"The American plan includes the establishment of a new 'city of Jerusalem' for the Palestinians, a humanitarian solution for the refugees and keeping borders and settlements under Israeli control," he said.
The future of Jewish settlements will be negotiated later after the establishment of a "Palestinian state" in about half of the West Bank and the entire Gaza Strip, al-Masri said.
"Any Palestinian role in this plan will definitely mean the end of the Palestinian cause," al-Masri said, stressing that this plan cannot come to reality without a Palestinian okay.
Recently, Palestinian officials announced in many occasions that the U.S. policies in the region threaten security and stability and cannot achieve peace in the Middle East.
They consider that the dangerous policies of U.S. administration over Jerusalem, the refugee issue, the 1967 borders and settlements are contrary to the prospects for peace, threatening to destabilize the entire region and ending any hopes of a political settlement.
Talal Okal, a political analyst in Gaza, said that the weeks that have passed since the U.S. decision on Jerusalem indicate that the United States does not have the absolute capacity to impose its policies and agendas and interests in the world, especially in the Middle East.
"The United States continues to run its policies and strategies out of sheer power," he said, adding that "Washington has to recognize the effectiveness, interests and capabilities of others."
The U.S. policies are totally in favor of Israel, he said, without taking into account that the Palestinians can thwart the so called "deal of century."
Palestinians announced that United States can not be a peace sponsor anymore after President Trump's declaration that Jerusalem is the capital of the state of Israel.
They have also called for forming a multilateral international mechanism to sponsor the Israeli-Palestinian peace process.
"The Palestinian attempts are continuing intensively to find multilateral international sponsorship to which Washington is a party and not the only party," Mohamed Ishtayeh, member of central committee of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah Party and a former peace negotiator, told Xinhua in a recent interview.
"We had repeatedly tried for many years the track of a U.S.-sponsored peace negotiations. Every time, these talks fail ... the problem always was that there was no fair mediator and there was no real Israeli peace partner," said Ishtayeh.
Ramallah-based Palestinian writer and political analyst Khalil Shahin said that the Palestinian leadership is now seeking an international framework that could help them endure and overcome the U.S. pressure.
Peace talks between the Palestinians and Israel have been stalled since 2014 after nine months of U.S.-sponsored negotiations. The talks have not led to any serious breakthrough to end the decades-old conflict due to deep differences on the issues of settlements, borders and security.
